News from the Network, Vol. 18, No. 44

 Boo.  Happy Halloween, whatever a “happy” Halloween consists of.  You want something really scary, though, take a look at today’s economy without the Economic Democracy Act:

The Meaning and Purpose of Life, I: The Burning Question

If we believe media hype and the typical behavior of other people, the answer to the question as to the meaning and purpose of life is to be better, have more, or do more than someone else.  If we believe philosophers and spiritual leaders, however, we tend to come up with a different response, and one that argues a fundamentally different orientation than treating other people as either competition or accomplices.

JTW Podcast: Continental Philosophy Part I: Husserl, Bergson, Heidegger, and Jaspers

Today, we present the first part of Professor Dave’s talk on continental philosophy.  As Professor Dave says, “With modern philosophy covered, let's cross over into contemporary philosophy. And let's begin by introducing the continental tradition in this time period. This included philosophers like Husserl, Bergson, Heidegger, and Jaspers. Let's see what they were all about!”:

News from the Network, Vol. 18, No. 43

 Rising national debt, job loss, AI bubble . . . is there any good news this week?  Yes — the good news is that there is a solution: the Economic Democracy Act:

The Blind Leading the Blinder

We may have mentioned one or two dozen (or hundred) times how much we like it when people ask us questions we can answer and then use as a posting on this blog.  What we like even better is when someone takes the bull between the teeth or the bit by the horns and writes the entire blog posting for us, with only a little bit of editing and formatting to make it fit our needs.

JTW Podcast: Logic in Late Modern Philosophy

Today, we present Professor Dave’s talk on logic in late modern philosophy.  As Professor Dave says, “How did logic continue to develop as the modern period in philosophy progressed? Mill and Comte discussed the inverse deductive method. But then a huge figure arose, George Boole. He innovated new logical symbology that got us closer to reducing logic to pure mathematics. Then Peirce developed abductive or retroductive logic. Let's get a closer look at these figures now!”:

News from the Network, Vol. 18, No. 42

 Believe it or not, there is an alternative to debt and taxes . . . it’s debt or taxes, and for a government, it’s better to go with taxes and live within its means as proposed in the Economic Democracy Act:

The Economic Answer to AI, II: The Spread of the Problem

In the previous posting on this subject, we noted — consistent with the Past Savings and the Sole Ownership assumptions combined with the Labor Theory of Value — most of “the rest of us” in the present day are constrained to wages and welfare for our subsistence.  Government policy has thus been focused on (as one of the founders of the Center for Economic and Social Justice used to put it while mimicking playing a cello) “jawbs, jawbs, jawbs” . . . with no thought as to what was behind the, er, “jawbs.”

JTW Podcast: Logic in Early Modern Philosophy

Today, we present Professor Dave’s talk on (obviously) logic in early modern philosophy.  As Professor Dave says, “With modern philosophy somewhat understood, it's time to pivot and see how logic developed during this time period. First, in the early part of this period, Pascal's wager was an important development, which was followed by the Port Royal Logic. There were also important developments by Kant, Bacon, Hume, Mill, and Llull. Let's see how Aristotelian logic developed during this time!”:

News from the Network, Vol. 18, No. 41

Again, much of this week’s news items wouldn’t be news items if the Economic Democracy Act: had been adopted.  Keep that in mind as you read:

The Economic Answer to AI, I: The Problem

 Recently we re-read New America (1983) by the late Poul Anderson, a compendium of four related science fiction novellas tied together into a coherent whole.  It was, as is typical of Anderson’s work, well-written, fitted within known science and social trends at the time it was published, and dealt with serious themes in a thoughtful yet entertaining manner.

JTW Podcast: Late Modern Philosophy Part 2: The Roots of Analytic Philosophy

 Today, we present “Part 2” of Professor Dave’s talk on Late Modern Philosophy, this one on “Analytic Philosophy.”  He doesn’t mention Comte’s reliance on Henri de Saint-Simon and socialist theology (“modernism”), but what the heck.  As Professor Dave says, “We just introduced continental philosophy, so let's take a look at the analytic tradition that arose around the same time, as the modern era was drawing to a close. Of the two schools, this was the one more concerned with philosophy of science and epistemology, which came about through figures like Comte, Spencer, Peirce, and others. Let's get a sense of this school now”:

News from the Network, Vol. 18, No. 40

 As usual, much of this week’s news items wouldn’t be news items if the Economic Democracy Act: had been adopted.  Keep that in mind as you read:

Why Economists Reject Binary Economics, VI: “Limited Academic Influence and Institutional Support”

 After a brief hiatus, we are returning to our series on “Why Economists Reject Binary Economics.”  Unfortunately, the reasons the so-called experts refuse to give Binary Economics consideration do not improve with age.  Binary Economics, however, continues to advance and refine its theories and applications and ages like wine, while so-called “mainstream economics” (i.e., Keynesian, Monetarist, and Austrian) continues to degenerate and ages like milk.